Turkish company Gama is expected to win the contract for the Ballincollig bypass in Cork after undercutting the nearest Irish competitor by £12 million. This will be the second time this year Gama has won a major civil engineering project.
Last February it tendered successfully for Viridian's 340 MW power station at Huntstown, Co Dublin, with a price of £10.3 million - 36 per cent below the lowest Irish bid. On this occasion, Gama bid to build the new bypass for £56 million. The nearest Irish bids were £68 million and £72 million. The National Roads Authority (NRA) is conducting a detailed evaluation of the bid but is expected to recommend acceptance to the NRA board when it meets on September 3rd.
A spokesman for the NRA said that in submitting the tender Gama was aware it would have to comply with Irish labour law and construction industry wage rates. The contract also required this.
The SIPTU construction branch officer, Mr Mick Finnegan, expressed concern that Gama was able to undercut Irish companies by bringing in its own Turkish workforce. Turkish rates for general operatives are £1.05 an hour compared with an Irish rate of £8.85.
If the Turkish workers are housed in special camps, Mr Finnegan said it would be impossible for unions to ensure they were properly paid.
However, the NRA said it was in the process of setting up a monitoring system to ensure contractors comply with Irish statutory requirements on pay and conditions. The system would allow inspectors to demand time sheets, wage accounts and other items when they visit sites.
"I had 19 Polish workers in the office this morning who are not being paid. It is the same every morning and it would take an army to police the abuse going on," Mr Finnegan said.
"There are major lay-offs right across the sector, house building and office blocks have gone way down. There is growing unemployment in the industry and we have to ask why the Government is actively encouraging companies to come in and bring their own workers with them."
He said transplanting large numbers of foreign workers to sites would raise tensions in the community.
Gama declined to comment on the Ballincollig contract yesterday, as did the Construction Industry Federation. Both are awaiting the completion of the tendering process.
However, a spokeswoman for Gama said "the company's activities in the Irish market are carried out in line with all appropriate construction industry labour agreements and are in full compliance with all current labour legislation".
Gama employs more than 9,500 people worldwide and its headquarters is in Ankara, Turkey. Its projects portfolio amounts to $950 million.
Gama Construction Ireland Ltd is currently overseeing the civil works contract for the construction of the gas-fired power station at Huntstown in partnership with Bowen Construction Ltd, a Cork-based civil engineering company. There have been no complaints about pay and conditions on the site.